Mother of schizophrenic son defends Taunton State Hospital

But she also expects better from Gov. Deval Patrick and the Department of Mental Health when it comes to their rationale for trying to shutter Taunton State Hospital.

Machado, 60, readily acknowledges her 33-year-old son suffers from schizophrenia, and that he was the person who police said used a screwdriver to rob Piezoni’s restaurant the night of Feb. 12.

“He said he was mad. He didn’t realize he did anything bad until he saw me crying,” Machado said.

But what truly upsets her, she said, is the fact there was nowhere for her son to go, in the days immediately following the robbery, for emergency, long-term inpatient care after being admitted to Morton Hospital.

Machado, who has worked as a nurse at Morton for more than 25 years, most recently on the medical surgical floor, said Mike spent five days confined to one of the small rooms within the hospital’s emergency department, reserved for patients suffering a psychotic episode or some other psychiatric crisis.

She said because the rooms are occupied on a temporary basis, patients like her son are not allowed to walk around and have no access to a shower.

Machado doesn’t blame Morton Hospital or its emergency department, which oftentimes is overwhelmed with people admitted because of mental and psychiatric problems.

“You have three or four patients waiting for a bed every night, some of them screaming their heads off,” Machado said.

And she’s grateful for Norwood Hospital, where her son was finally taken to after those five days.

That hospital, which like Morton is owned by Steward Health Care System, has a 21-bed adult psychiatric unit.

“They have good care,” Machado said.

But the governor and DMH, she said, are sorely misguided in their continued attempt to close Taunton State Hospital.

“The government keeps cutting funds off, and that’s what makes me mad,” Machado said, as she sat in the family room of her Scadding Street house.

Machado said after her son was most recently admitted to Morton Hospital — she said he’d previously been admitted twice since the end of December — a social worker there told her he would have to stay, because there were “no beds in the entire state.”

“We need Taunton State — he (Patrick) should not have closed this place,” she said.

The battle for the survival of the Taunton facility, which first opened as a psychiatric hospital in 1854, is now in its third year. Although it hasn’t closed, the number of inpatient beds has shrunk from 170 to 45.

The governor and DMH argue that it makes more sense to close what they consider an antiquated facility in favor of the new Worcester Recovery Center.

They also encourage community-based services and group homes be more fully utilized as opposed to traditional institutional care.

Machado said even if the Worcester facility offers excellent care, driving for up to an hour and half each way to visit her son will be burdensome.

State Rep. Pat Haddad, D-Somerset, whose Fifth Bristol district includes Taunton’s sixth ward, said she’ll continue to fight to keep Taunton State open, even in a limited capacity.

“There are not enough critical-care beds — how many times do we have to say it?” Haddad said.

“This gentleman (Machado) is the perfect example of the need throughout the SouthCoast and all over the state,” she added. “There’s no placement for him.”

Haddad said proposals regarding the future of Taunton State Hospital from the House and Senate will differ greatly from that of the governor, whom she expects will again propose a veto, which in turn will be overridden.

She also said it’s unfair for Patrick and DMH to not utilize what Haddad said is “an entire ward” of the Worcester hospital as long as Taunton State remains open.

“It’s as if it’s our fault,” said Haddad, who along with state Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, and state Rep. Shaunna O’Connell, R-Taunton, has opposed the closing of the Taunton facility.

Machado, who also has a 35-year-old son, said Mike has never been violent and is more of a threat to himself than anyone else.

“He’s the sweetest person. He has a very good heart,” she said, adding that her husband declined to be interviewed for the story.

“He supports his son, but he’s Portuguese and old-fashioned about these things.”

Machado said the last time Mike was able to hold down a job was when he was a student at Taunton High School, during which he worked part time at Walmart and Wendy’s.

But she said by age 19 he was diagnosed as schizophrenic, after an incident where he threw a rock through the sliding glass window of the home of a woman he liked — which in turn led to a two-and-a-half-year stay in Taunton State Hospital.

After being discharged in 2004, she said, he qualified for financial support from Medicare and MassHealth. That money has enabled him to pay rent for a small apartment on Washington Street, which is located near Piezoni’s.

Machado said she initially had no idea her son had allegedly committed a crime, because police were unable to post a surveillance photo until three days after the robbery. What she did realize two days after the robbery, was that Mike needed to go back into the hospital.

When she called her son to say she’d be over to pick him up for their usual Friday night bible prayer meeting, Machado said he claimed he couldn’t go because he didn’t feel good.

Machado said her son is paranoiac and has a history of being suspicious about people, including herself, who might want to poison his food.

She claims he walked out of Piezoni’s the night of the robbery with all of $3 taken from an employee tip container. The video image, which was published in the Taunton Daily Gazette, shows an unengaged looking man walking with hands in pockets and his face and head completely exposed.

Machado said for years, Mike has visited a female psychiatrist at least every six weeks.

On the occasion when she has determined he needs immediate acute care, Machado said her son’s psychiatrist has utilized Section 12 of the state’s general law, allowing a clinical social worker to contact police for emergency restraint of someone posing a risk of harm by reason of mental illness.

Machado suspects Mike needs a new medical regimen. She said he has always been faithful to his regimen of taking his prescribed pills, but that since December, something has gone awry.

She also claimed that after one of his recent stays at Morton Hospital, she pleaded with the social worker on duty not to release her son so quickly, because she was convinced he was too unstable.

Shortly thereafter, she said, the Piezoni’s incident occurred.

“The doctors would not listen to me, and now he has a (criminal) record, and that’s why I get angry,” Machado said, adding that she accepts the fact her son eventually will be arraigned in court on charges of armed robbery.

And she said she misses meeting with other parents of children with serious psychiatric and mental problems. It’s been years, Machado said, since regular meetings were held in Taunton with members of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

“No one understands mental illness unless they have it in their family,” she said.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.